


Serve With Honor

by junko



Series: the distance between us [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-04
Updated: 2012-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-30 14:22:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows “To Catch a Falling Star.”  In this installment, Renji and Byakuya fight over who is on top, some things get broken… others don’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serve With Honor

**Author's Note:**

> Setting: Pre-Soul Society arc, in the early days of Renji’s vice-captaincy. Knowledge of that storyline would be helpful, some Renji back story spoilage.
> 
> Warnings: Very explicit, skirts the edges of non-con, but skews bondage/dominance. Ultimately, however, very sweet and a touch tragic.

Renji Abarai stood in his captain’s quarters feeling out of place among all the fine, expensive things. He scrubbed at his hairline, trying to push stubborn locks from his eyes. Damn Yumichiko for slicing his band. His hair’s disarray added to Renji’s feeling of unkemptness. He didn’t belong here. He was a mess and in desperate need of a bath; he felt as though he tracked dirt wherever he stepped in this pristine bedroom.

Surely, he’d discharged his duty when he brought Byakuya back safely. No one would ever have to know how he’d found his stately, noble captain stumbling around the streets of the Seireitei in the middle of the night.

Besides, Byakuya was clearly well enough now to take care of himself. Though he still moved with concentrated deliberation, he’d removed his zanpaktō and hung it on a peg on the wall near his dressing table. The scarf that usually wrapped his neck had been returned to a box in a drawer. His captain’s haori was off and folded neatly over the chair. Seeing Byakuya weaponless, without the jacket, and in only the uniform of any common shinigami already felt far too familiar.

Renji found he had to divert his eyes.

If he felt this way with his captain still fully dressed, he should go. He sketched a quick, formal bow, and said, “If you have no more need of me, Taicho….”

He’d already turned to go when Byakuya’s command stopped him. “You are not yet dismissed, lieutenant.”

Renji stifled a groan of frustration. He turned smartly on his heels and stood at attention. “Sir.”

Byakuya sat in front of the mirror, frowning at something on the tabletop. His hands rested delicately in his lap. Renji waited for the captain to speak, admiring, as he always did, the way the silken strands of obsidian hair flowed over shoulders and down his back. He remembered the scent of it. Just under his nose as he’d helped Byakuya make his way back here, it had smelled of delicate rose blossoms. What would it be like in his hands? Would it feel of pure silk?

Byakuya let out a sigh. “My fingers are too clumsy for the kenseikan. Will you remove it, Renji?”

“Oh,” was all he could manage as he made his way across the room to stand behind his captain. Looking down, slightly over him, reminded Renji of sex. He had to concentrate on his breathing to not be stirred simply by their nearness.

To distract himself, Renji focused on unraveling the mystery of the captain’s hairpiece. He looked at the fine silver chains that connected the two bone white pieces in the back, trying to find an obvious latch. He lifted one of the chains, running his fingers along it, but found nothing immediately useful. “Uh, how does this thing work, anyway?”

Byakuya gestured to the points where the curved pieces met. “Here.”

Renji nodded, seeing the tiny latches now. As fine as the craftsmanship was, Renji wasn’t sure his thick fingers could work them either. Worse, strands of Byakuya’s hair seemed determined to slip under his grasp, tangling in the chain. Though Renji was sure he must have snagged him more than once, the captain made no sound of protest.

At long last he had the hair piece under control, and it glided off with surprising ease. The strands so long separated fell together in front of Byakuya’s hooded and downcast eyes. Renji’s heart pounded at the sight. His captain looked startlingly vulnerable… almost naked.

“Now, here.”

The sudden sound of Byakuya’s voice startled Renji. He realized he was clutching the kenseikan in his hands so hard he was in danger of breaking them. He blinked, and tried to figure out what his captain wanted him to do. Byakuya’s long-boned finger was helpfully pointing to a lined box, its lid open. Renji had to reach around the captain to carefully slide the hairpiece into it. He let out a sigh of relief when the valuable jewelry was finally out of his hands.

“Thank you.”

Renji straightened and tried not to meet the eyes seeking his in the reflection of the mirror. “It was my pleasure, sir.”

Maybe now Renji would be freed to go. This constant closeness to Byakuya was driving him to the very edge. But as usual, his maddening captain gave no indication of what he should do next. Without a command, he could only stand there, staring blindly at a watercolor painting on the wall, desperately trying to keep his body under control.

“Is something wrong, Renji?”

Wrong was seeing Byakuya like this, so seemingly available, but completely out of reach. He shifted his eyes to the floor. “No,” he said curtly. Knowing he couldn’t just leave it so rudely, he struggled to find a safe answer. “I… it’s late, Taicho. We should be in bed.”

A soft laugh, “Yes, I agree.”

 _Wait, was that a come on? Had I just proposed it? Or him?_ Renji’s eyes snapped up in time to see his captain suddenly standing in front of him. Byakuya’s hands parted the curtain of Renji’s hair and cupped his face. Cool palms pressed against burning cheeks.

“Bed,” Byakuya said, his voice little more than a husky whisper, “Is long overdue, wouldn’t you say?”

The proximity of Byakuya’s body was impossible to ignore now. The captain’s face was inches from his own. He was overwhelmed by the intoxicating smell of him. Those slender lips parted ever so slightly, as if ready for a kiss. More obvious yet was the way Byakuya’s need pressed against Renji’s thigh. Renji needed no instruction now; what his captain desired seemed obvious.

With a low growl, Renji caught Byakuya’s mouth up in a bruising kiss. In the same moment, he slid his hands through the folds of the shitage, parting both robes, and grasped Byakuya firmly at the waist. With a smart turn on the balls of his feet, he spun them around. Using the momentum of that movement, he pushed Byakuya on to the futon.

Since they were still locked in a kiss, the force of the impact caused Byakuya to bite him on the lip. Renji let out a little happy snarl at the rough sport, and grinned devilishly into Byakuya’s scandalized expression. Meanwhile, his hungry hands slid deeper under Byakuya’s robes.

The only warning Renji had was the sudden flash in Byakuya’s narrowing eyes. His captain’s palms moved from his face to his shoulders. With expert precision and surprising strength, Byakuya flipped Renji onto his back. Moving with liquid grace, he straddled him in an instant. Before Renji could react to the sudden reversal, Byakuya seized his wrists and forced them deep into the mattress. He leaned over Renji, his usually languid expression full of a new intensity.

Renji had managed to pull apart Byakuya’s robes enough to reveal a narrow, pale chest. One shoulder had escaped the uniform as well. Byakuya: dishelved. It was unthinkably hot, and given the way the other man’s ass pressed down on his cock, Renji couldn’t help but respond to it.

“I am above you,” Byakuya said with the trace of a dark smile.

Byakuya’s hair spilled into Renji’s face, brushing softly against his skin, so tantalizingly close to his lips. Renji’s tongue snaked out to curl around a strand. Capturing one, he snapped his teeth down on it. Then he gave it a jerk, successfully pulling Byakuya’s face a millimeter closer. He snapped playfully, “Only if you can keep me down.”

“Hmph,” Byakuya snorted, as if amused at the thought. With a toss of his head, he shook his hair from Renji’s mouth. “You have no hope of gaining the advantage now.”

“You always underestimate me, Taicho.” He bent his knees, and then bucked his hips up, hard.

In order to avoid an unplanned head butt, Byakuya had to release Renji’s wrists and twist into an awkward roll. There was the loud clatter of things falling from an upended dresser. Something shattered.

By the time Renji had turned himself over and was raising himself up on his elbows to pounce, Byakuya had come up into a low crouch. He knelt there, with a hand resting, almost casually, on the floor between his legs. In the darkened corner of the room, his face was hidden. His voice was low, “You are exactly as I expected you’d be, Renji Abarai -- in need of discipline.”

A wicked smile spread on Renji’s face. He wagged his fingers in a come-and-get-me gesture. “Bring it on.”

But the blood drained from Renji’s face when Byakuya raised his other hand with the first two fingers upraised tightly together. Wide-eyed, Renji watched as his arm extended straight and his palm pointed directly at Renji’s chest. Before Byakuya even spoke the words, Renji could feel the rising magical kidō energy. The single syllable fell like a hammer, “Sai.”

“Ai! You cheat!” Renji shouted as the binding spell wrenched his arms behind his back. Denied the support of his hands, his face hit the mattress. More embarrassing still was the way his ass stuck straight up in the air.

Byakuya stood, and with a graceful gesture untied the knot of the obi. The robes parted with the whisper of silk, given Renji the fist look at his captain’s flawless body. Even as he fought against the magical shackles, Renji’s own cock hardened at the sight.

“You know better than to struggle,” Byakuya said. From his awkward position, Renji could only glimpse naked feet as they walked across the floor, unhurried. “The more you push, the more they tighten.”

His only response was a strangled moan, and greater effort.

“I only told half the truth when I told you why I’d gone looking for you earlier,” Byakuya said in an almost conversational tone. Renji could no longer see him, though he heard the captain open a drawer and riffle among the contents -- the sound of bottles clinking. “Earlier, in my office, you disobeyed a direct order. I’m afraid I must teach you that next time I ask something of you, you will give it. No hesitation.”

Renji’s gut roiled with a strange combination of shame and arousal.

The mattress shifted as Byakuya kneel on the bed somewhere behind him. Though he couldn’t see, Renji heard the sounds of hands, slick with lotion, rubbing together. A scent of sandalwood seemed to fill the bedroom. Oh, the irony. Only hours ago he was remarking at the crude simplicity of 11th division lube. Now, he himself was getting the good stuff.

Still, his set his teeth and he felt his muscles tighten. When Byakuya lifted his robed over his hips his breath rushed from him in a hiss.

 _Do you want this?_ It took a moment for Renji to recognize the alien timber of Zabimaru, his zanpaktō.

The blade still rested against his hip, though it, like him, was stuck in an awkward position. “I… don’t know,” Renji whispered.

 _If not,_ a second, colder voice added. _We’ll lend our strength and break this spell._

Renji felt it, then, a slight surge. When he pushed, he found he could loosen the restrictive coils wrapped around his arms a bit. He could tell that it would require some determination, but he could break free.

He just had to want to.

Despite the threat of his words, Byakuya’s reistsu had remained steady, calm. In the past, Renji had been pinned by the sharp pressure of an angry Byakuya boring down on him. This was not it. “Let’s wait,” he told his sword. “See how he is.”

“Hm,” it was Byakuya who spoke now. “You’ve stopped fighting me quite so much. Does this mean you accept your fate?”

Renji couldn’t quite bring himself to say yes, but he stilled his body to an anxious quiver. If it was going to be like this, he would hold on to whatever shred of dignity he could. Despite the fact that his face still pressed into the pillows, he squared his shoulders the best he could. _All right_ , he told himself. _Let’s do this_.

A slick finger slid deep inside him. Despite himself, Renji cried out.

“Oh.” Inside him, Byakuya’s finger suddenly stilled. “You’re a virgin?”

What the hell difference should that make? Why wouldn’t the man move? Renji strained against the finger, desperate now for more.

“This is unexpected,” Byakuya said. “I would have thought… a man like you….”

Renji let out a small a cynical chuckle. “Like me? It shows how little you understand, Taicho. I’ve clawed my way up out of the gutter; I don’t let anyone push me down.”

“I see.”

Byakuya seemed momentarily frozen in place. Renji rocked his hips trying to urge his captain into further action. Byakuya had him exactly where he wanted him, why did he still hesitate?

“Then this,” Byakuya said, at last, his finger gliding out, leaving Renji aching and empty. “Is not honorable.”

The binding spell shattered. Renji’s arms flung out. Suddenly freed, he collapsed, breathing hard.

“Forgive me,” Byakuya said.

Of course he would, but he didn’t understand for what. Too stunned to even move, Renji could only offer a weak protest as Byakuya left the bed. Bare feet slapped quietly on the bamboo floor as he walked away.

_He’s leaving me here. I’ve disappointed him somehow._

Renji’s eyes fluttered shut, and he turned away to bury his face in the sheets. Pins and needles pricked along his arms as the feeling slowly returned to them. A distant part of his mind heard the sound of water splashing in a nearby room and Byakuya making his way back into the bedroom. When the captain settled back on the mattress, Renji eyes opened. His body stiffened. “I’ll go,” he offered, though his limbs trembled so much, he wasn’t sure he even had the strength.

“Yes, of course. If that’s what you wish,” Byakuya said, his voice filled with regret.

Renji didn’t wish, but what options did he have? Still, he found himself still laying there, not moving more than shallow, quick breaths.

“But, I would… make amends, if you would allow it,” Byakuya said. He slowly lowered himself down beside Renji, and curled his body close behind him. A hand threaded under Renji’s arm, and rested, gently between Renji’s legs, just over his still hard cock. The fabric of shihakushô was bunched there, and his zanpaktō was trapped painfully under his side. “But,” Byakuya’s breath tickled Renji’s ear, “You would have to disrobe for me finally.”

His hand almost immediately moved to undo the belt, but he stopped. “I thought I was too much of a virgin for you.”

That soft, almost wicked laugh that made Renji’s heart skip, and then, “Never _too_ much a virgin, but to be tamed in such a way takes proper… training.” A quick squeeze of fabric brought a moan to Renji’s lips. Byakuya continued, “You, it’s clear, are not easily broken. I would enjoy the challenge, but I’ve already proven a poor commander.”

“No, sir, never,” Renji breathed.

Renji could feel the slight shake of Byakuya’s head. “I lack the patience you would need. I’m too unbending.”

It was heartbreaking, but true.

“Perhaps once another man…”

Renji cut him off, his hand curling around Byakuya’s, “There is no other man.”

“Then I’m truly sorry.”

They lay there silently for a long moment. Renji’s heart rate slowed and his breathing evened out as he struggled to imagine a way for things to… work. Turns out he was right. It was impossible to get his captain to bed. He let go of Byakuya’s hand with a sigh.

“Renji?”

“Hm?”

“You’re still… at full attention,” he chuckled, his fingers playfully stroking the fabric just over Renji’s cock. “How is that even possible?”

Renji smiled, “I have a lot of stamina, sir.”

“You must. I noticed it took two men to satisfy you earlier. I wonder if I have any hope of being enough.”

Renji shrugged, untying his belt. “You could try.”

#

It turned out the captain had exquisitely skilled hands. They played over Renji’s body mercilessly, until he came in a hot, explosive rush. _Things_ , thought Renji as he drifted to sleep wrapped in his captain’s arms, might work out, _after all_.


End file.
